School resource officer reconsidered

FARMINGTON — Police Chief Kevin Willey reports his department is making great strides in reinstating the school resource officer position for the school district.

The officer will be placed if approved by the town Budget Committee for the 2013 school year.

Willey said in light of the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, it is becoming more imperative for the town to have more security at the schools, where both Farmington and Middleton children attend. Additionally, Willey said he has seen a rise in crime on school campuses since the position was eliminated in June 2011.

Willey said employing a school resource officer (SRO) also allows for earlier intervention by police, rather than officers resorting to making arrests, which he said have risen drastically.

Willey reported since the elimination of the SRO position, violent acts in the local schools, including Farmington High School, went up by 20 percent. He noted the number of calls for police to respond to school campuses has increased by 48 percent.

“Adding an SRO can make a tremendously positive impact,” Willey said. “Number one, you hope in circumstances like Friday (in Connecticut), that something like that may be prevented …(and) having the school resource officer there, it opens up the lines of communication between students, staff and law enforcement far more proactive in dealing with those issues at the earliest possible time and preventing those things from occurring.”

The Board of Selectmen and School Board have already signaled their support for adding the position back into the budget, and a meeting of the Budget Committee is scheduled for early January to discuss the matter further.

Willey said ideally, he wants the police to have an everyday presence at schools, not to get students into trouble, he emphasized, but to create a sense of a relationship between students and the local officer.

“My goal is not to have people say, ‘Why are the police here?’ when they’re around the school,” he said. “It should be, ‘Why isn’t the SRO here today?’”

A public hearing will be held by the Farmington Budget Committee, to discuss 2013 to 2014 school budget items and warrant articles, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 10 at Farmington High School on Thayer Drive.